Connecting in the field with our Farmer Support Centers.
Making a personal connection in coffee-growing communities is important to the success of our coffee sustainability efforts.
When we formally launched C.A.F.E. Practices in 2004, we believed one of the best ways to gain adoption of our new standards would be to spend time in the field, learning, explaining and demonstrating the benefits to farmers. We appointed a team of agronomy experts to start the first Starbucks Farmer Support Center in Costa Rica.
The decision turned out to be a good one. Working on-the-ground with farmers and suppliers throughout Latin America, agronomists like Carlos Mario Rodriguez have helped them to improve their coffee quality through the adoption of C.A.F.E. Practices. This has also led to a 20 percent increase in farmers' yields per hectare, an 80 percent reduction in the use of pesticides, and a 383 percent increase in the supply of high-quality coffee purchased from approved C.A.F.E suppliers since 2005.
More support for farmers in Africa.
In 2008, we expanded our on-the-ground presence in Africa by hiring a director of agronomy to oversee the new Farmer Support Center in Rwanda. Like Carlos Mario Rodriguez, our director of agronomy in Central America, the staffs of both centers are working with East African coffee communities to help farmers continue to improve their coffee quality and increase the number of suppliers participating in C.A.F.E. Practices in order to achieve our sustainability goals.
We had originally hoped that an additional Farmer Support Center in Ethiopia would be open by now. However, delays in opening the regional center in Rwanda and the global economic slowdown have made it challenging for us to move as quickly as we'd like. We remain committed to opening a Farmer Support Center in Ethiopia, but do not have a an opening date to share at this time.
A day in the field with a Starbucks agronomist.
Carlos Mario Rodríguez is the director of agronomy at the Starbucks Farmer Support Center in Costa Rica. As a Starbucks agronomist, Carlos works hand-in-hand with farmers on sustainable crop production and soil management. Below he shares what a day in his life is all about.
I start my day at 5:30 a.m. with a good cup of coffee and a half an hour walk around the neighborhood. After that, I drive with my six-year-old daughter Elena to her preparatory school in a small town called Grecia in Costa Rica.
From there, I travel to Coopeatenas, where Leopoldo, the cooperative's agronomist, is waiting for me to visit four farmers to take soil samples from their coffee farms. This allows us to tailor their fertilization strategy to each individual plot of land using computer tools that facilitate an understanding of the soil analysis.
By helping farmers learn how to take soil and leaf samples and to interpret the results, Starbucks is helping them develop a "precision agriculture" model that guides us to use the proper macro- and micro-nutrients in the amount that each plot or farm needs.
This process is helping farmers to reduce the cost of production, correct the soil composition, reduce fungus infections, improve coffee quality and increase the production of premium coffee. All these components are directly related to Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practices guidelines and our focus on coffee sustainability.
I feel very proud to work at Starbucks Farmer Support Center because we are truly giving farmers the support and tools they need to produce more and better coffee in harmony with nature – by reducing the total amount of pesticide use and their production costs while improving high-quality coffee yields.
What our farmers say.
Luis Alberto Monge
Santa Martha and San Isidro farms
San Lorenzo de San Marcos de Tarrazu, Costa Rica
Luis Alberto Monge
"For us, it has been very important to participate in C.A.F.E. Practices. We have been able to identify what the real needs are for our coffee plantations by the soil and leaf analysis. This has been helping us to apply what our coffee farms really need. And we have been able to see the changes that our farms made which is reflected in the improvement in their higher and more stable yield. All these changes have been very positive for our lives, especially in these difficult moments in our economy. Besides these benefits, we don't need to apply so many agrochemicals, which has been allowing us work in harmony with nature."
Herbert Chacon
Las Peñas farm
Sabanilla de Alajuela, Costa Rica
Herbert Chacon
"Thanks to the assistance from the C.A.F.E. Practices team, the Las Peñas and Chacon Morera farm and mill group is very pleased for this great help. We made many improvements in our coffee farm yield and maintenance in our coffee farms with the collaboration and direct support from the agronomy team from Starbucks office. Thank you very much, friends."
